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In Depth interviews - October 10

This is the In Depth show blog. Here you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

Today's guests:

Katherine Hammack —
Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment

October is Army Energy Awareness Month. Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and the Environment, has been crisscrossing the country meeting with leaders from Army bases to discuss the Army's sustainability and energy-efficiency projects.

The Army's Net Zero energy initiative aims to implement innovative technologies to both conserve energy on Army bases as well as to repurpose energy with the goal of producing as much energy on the base as it uses.

The federal government constantly struggles with its small business goals. But part of the problem might not be a matter of dollars spent, but helping small businesses understand how to obtain contracts, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

Bill Shear, director of Financial Markets and Community Investment Issues at GAO, joins In Depth to explain where agencies are falling short in assisting small minority-owned businesses.

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.)

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, is calling for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to fire his chief of staff, John Gingrich, for failing to exercise proper oversight over conference costs.

The VA IG reported last week that Gingrich signed off on the two human-resources training conferences which ended up costing the agency $6.1 million — and contained as much as $762,000 in questionable spending.